


A Match Into Water

by TheBlackMagister



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Complicated Relationships, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Smut, F/M, Falling In Love, Lucio (The Arcana) Being A Dick, Magic, Murder Mystery, Near Death Experiences, Post-Canon, Redemption, Swordfighting, Tags May Change, hes a feral cat... wants love but will Hurt u, just to put that out there, lucios kink is being shown affection, ok uhhhhhh, when is he not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:28:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25641337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBlackMagister/pseuds/TheBlackMagister
Summary: All Millie had wanted to do was save Lucio from what was a certain, painful death. Everything that comes after is an accident. [set post-Julian's route, except the apprentice and julian never end up together](Check me out ontumblr: countmorgasson.tumblr.com!)
Relationships: Apprentice/Lucio (The Arcana), Lucio (The Arcana)/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 12





	A Match Into Water

**Author's Note:**

> [reference for millie!](https://countmorgasson.tumblr.com/post/625193848822497280/first-post-so-hi-im-ash-i-just-got-into-the)  
> ive never written anything for an oc so pls be nice

Millie hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Lucio.

Everything is getting better now, in theory. They had bound the Devil, so he won’t be hurting anyone for at least a very long time. The courtiers had all been freed from their deals - though some were less appreciative than others. As for the group of friends; Julian had opened his clinic next door to the magic shop, though half the time he’s away on a ship, “working on himself” as he calls it. Nadia had asked Portia to look after the exotic animal sanctuary, while the countess works on repairing the city. Asra had moved into the Palace with his parents. The plague is gone, and the Vesuvians are happier than ever.

But.. the thought of the ex-Count still lingers. He’d been freed from his deals, but almost immediately he’d disappeared into the depths of the magical realms. Which would be fine, Millie supposes, except for it’s much harder to keep tabs on him now, if he’s even still alive. Which is the other bit, no matter how much she’s trying to ignore it: he’s in much more danger there than here. And, well, despite everything, she doesn’t think he  _ deserves _ to die.

And so today’s the day. Or.. evening. Her friends have all retired for the night - save Julian, who, as always, is away - and the shop has just closed, so it’s quiet and still and nobody will see, whether she messes it up and looks like an idiot or whether she brings the banished ex-Count back into Vesuvia.

She stares hard at the shop door. Asra had shown her, once or twice, how to open a personal gate, though she’s never done it alone. She focuses on the magic within her, feeling it tug at the back of her mind, and then firmly grasps the door handle and opens the door to the shop.

At first, it doesn’t seem like anything happened, and Millie is about to close the door when she realizes the landscape beyond the doorway is rapidly changing. It settles, after a long moment, on long, sloping hills, covered in a short layer of grass so green it doesn’t look real. Nestled in a valley stretches a long lake shimmering in various different colors, shaded by a grove of large trees. It’s  _ beautiful _ . And it means she’s done it.

She steps through into the gate, feeling the familiar shudder of magic, her vision swimming temporarily with the change in realms. For a moment, she’s excited - she’s going to have to tell Asra when she gets back that she opened a gate on her own - but the excitement is quickly extinguished by the realization that she probably shouldn’t tell  _ anyone _ what she’s about to do. Nadia had been very firm in banishing Lucio from all of Vesuvia and its territories, so bringing him back will have to be very under the radar.

Millie pauses just inside the gate. She.. hadn’t put that much thought into this, actually, and finding him may be harder than she had anticipated. Then a thought strikes her; Asra had mentioned Lucio had almost no magical power of his own, and she had felt for herself the void that was Lucio’s magic. It’s not much, but it’s kind of a lead - an empty hole in a world full of magic should stand out.

She stands still and stretches out her magic, feeling for any trace of the ex-Count. There’s a tingle of something that she can feel, at the edge of her consciousness, but when she tries to follow the feeling it wisps away.  _ Ugh _ . She scowls to herself, turning in circles before finally deciding that, from her current point, she’s not going to find Lucio. 

She’s been training almost non-stop since the fight with the Devil. Her magical strength has made leaps and bounds since then - so it shouldn’t be this hard to find one man, who probably couldn’t hide himself here if he wanted to. She lets out a long, slow breath, and, keeping her senses out, tracks down the hill to the lakeshore. The tingle grows stronger as she approaches, especially so when she reaches the sand, but it vaporizes every time she tries to find where it’s coming from. 

“Why can’t I find him?” She says into the water, scowling at her reflection. “Where is this asshole?”

The water doesn’t answer, of course. But when she glances to the side she spots a perfectly smooth, oval rock laying in the sand that wasn’t there before. She leans down and scoops it up; it fits perfectly in the palm of her hand, tingling with magic. On instinct, she winds back and skips the stone across the water. It creates ripples with each skip; but instead of fading, the ripples slowly form an image in the water. She kneels down, squinting into the water.

It’s.. Lucio, she realizes with a jolt. She can only see his back, crouched next to a fire in a snowy forest. The tingle at the back of her skull suddenly turns into an insistent, almost painful pull, and without thinking she leans forward, stretching her hand to the water. As soon as her fingers brush the surface she pitches forward; the world spins and she holds her breath as she plunges into the water, feeling eddied by an unseen current. This, she thinks, her eyes squeezed shut against the water, might have been a mistake. 

Then, without warning, she is deposited unceremoniously into a snowdrift. It’s far, far colder than the peaceful hillside she was on, and she jumps about a foot in the air, hissing curses. Not exactly what she had intended. But here she can feel the absence of magic Lucio leaves like a hole, and, more than that, she can tell which direction it’s coming from. Shivering in the cold, grateful for her long sleeves, she sets off in the direction her senses tell her.

She sees the light from his fire first, illuminating the trees and making the snow shine uncomfortably. She slows her steps, suddenly a bit nervous - her last encounter with Lucio had been less than friendly. She takes a pause to cast a quick protection spell, feeling the tingle run down her spine, and then continues her approach.

She ducks under one more tree branch, and finally reaches his campsite, nestled in a clearing. He’s not here, but the fire in the middle is still burning brightly and there’s impressions of his boots in the snow. The lake had shown him here. But maybe it was a bit behind..?

“Uh.. hello..?” She says, taking a couple of steps into the clearing. She clears her throat and raises her voice a little. “Count Lucio..?”

There’s no answer, just the crackle of the flames. She frowns. Had he already retired for the night? Nearby, a branch cracks in two, and she turns on her heel, summoning magic into her palms. She has the distinct impression she’s being watched.

She takes a step towards the trees. Then a pair of eyes looms at her out of the darkness, stark red and hungry; she yelps and stumbles backwards in the snow, only to back into a broad, warm chest, the sharp edge of a blade coming up under her chin. 

Well. She guesses she must have found Lucio.

“Why are you here?” Lucio says, and he sounds very distinctly angry. Millie struggles to find words for a moment, and he pulls the sword up higher, digging it into her skin; the protective spell she’d cast creaks under the pressure. “ _ Answer me! _ ”

“I-I came to find you!” She squeaks.

“Why?”

This is not the man she remembers - the one who’d tried to bargain for his life, who’d apologized so badly it would have been hilarious in any other situation. The Lucio threatening her now is cold and cruel and serious. She swallows hard.

“Be-because - because this isn’t a place for anyone to live,” She says, forcing her voice not to tremble. “And I couldn’t stand the thought of you - of anyone being stuck here..”

He scoffs. The blade drops from her throat and he shoves her away; she stumbles and drops into the snow with an  _ oof _ . She turns over to face him. He’s standing over her, glaring down at her with his arms folded.

He’s clearly been living wild. His normally swept back, carefully styled hair is mussed, falling loosely across his face; even his scruff is beginning to grow out. He’s forgone the furred cape and his sash of medals, leaving him in dressed in all white that makes him blend in with the snowy landscape. He’s thinner than he was last Millie had seen him - leaner. But all that taken into account, he still looks perfectly healthy and almost.. content?

“Did Noddy send you?” He says, tucking his sword back into its sheath. Millie sits up, brushing the snow from her shoulders.

“No.”

Lucio frowns down at her. “What? You remember that she banished me from Vesuvia, right? Did you get hit in the head?”

“I - no! I - I just.. I mean..”

“So.. you’re going against the law set by the  _ Countess _ ?”

Millie struggles to answer for a long moment.  _ It’s not like that _ , she wants to say, but.. “Yes,” She says finally. “When you put it that way..”

“Well, you’re not as stupid as I thought.” Lucio turns away from her and moves to the fire; she gapes after him, not sure if she should be offended or not. “Get up. Before you freeze to death.”

She gets to her feet, slowly, dusting the snow off her clothes. Lucio’s knelt by the fire, tossing a couple of sticks in and keeping the flame high; Millie carefully approaches him, though she keeps a little distance between them. It takes a few moments, but finally he seems to realize she’s not leaving, and he heaves a sigh, turning to face her.

“You’re serious,” He says, frowning. “You’re going to go under Nadia’s nose to bring  _ me _ back.”

“That.. that’s the intention,” Millie agrees, her gaze leaving his in embarrassment. He makes a thoughtful sound.

“Can’t say I don’t want to leave this hellhole.” He taps his chin thoughtfully, eyeing his setup. “...okay, fine. Get me out of here. Maybe I’ll consider this a repayment for your theft.”

“A re-” Millie cuts herself off, scowling at the audacity. That’s much closer to the Lucio she had been expecting. “Fine, whatever.”

She closes her eyes and focuses on the door of her shop, and the real world beyond it. Magic tingles low in her chest, and she feels like she can almost reach out and touch it-

“Is something supposed to be happening?” Lucio’s voice breaks into her concentration, and she opens her eyes. The landscape before her is unchanged. She sighs in annoyance.

“Yes,” She scolds. “Be quiet so I can focus. This isn’t as easy as it looks.”

Lucio grumbles to himself, but he falls silent while he collects his things as she closes her eyes again and reaches for her magic. She tries to recall the feeling of opening her personal gate; where the magic had pulled from then. She channels the slow but steady surge of magic into her fingertips, and finally - with a not insignificant amount of effort - the door to her shop fades into view. Lucio hums.

“Not bad, I guess,” He says, and she frowns at him. Still.. she wanted to free him, so she guesses she’ll just have to put up with him until she can smuggle him out of the city. She grasps the door handle, and it swings open at once, revealing, thankfully, the interior of her shop, just as she had left it. She gestures for him to go first. He does without question, ducking through the open door, with her hot on his heels. The door swings shut behind them, and when she peeks it open again, it opens to the street just outside the store.

It worked. Millie sighs in relief, pulling the door back shut again and turning to the man in her shop. He looks incredibly out of place, far too posh and royal for a shop like this. He turns in a slow circle, eyeing all of the magic items warily.

“You..  _ live _ here?” He huffs, leaning to peer at a jar of herbs, which she quickly shoos him away from.

“Yes, I live here,” She says, exasperated. “The living quarters are upstairs. Okay - look. You can stay here until it’s safe to get you out of the city.”

He turns to her, frowning skeptically. “You’re letting me stay?”

“If I kick you out now, Nadia will have you imprisoned for the rest of your life.” Millie side-steps him and begins to climb the staircase. “Come on.”

He trails after her. She can feel his gaze boring into her back, and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Maybe this was a bad idea. She knows what he’s done, the kind of man that he is.. and here she is, letting him into her house, alone and unarmed. Just because he hasn’t killed her yet doesn’t mean anything.

“Here we are,” She says, when they reach the top of the stairs. She heads over to the fridge to check how much food she’s got; frowning, she makes a mental checklist. She’s going to need to go to the store tomorrow.

“Uh,” Lucio says, and she twists to peer over her shoulder at him. He’s not looking at her; a slow flush is creeping up into his cheeks, tinging the tips of his ears pink. “You know there’s only, uh..”

He gestures to the bed. She lets out a long-suffering sigh. “Obviously we aren’t sleeping together,” She says, returning to the fridge and pushing aside the milk to peer into the back. “I’ll sleep downstairs, we’ve got some comfortable chairs.”

His lips quirk into a frown, but he says nothing, instead turning away to shrug out of his furs. Clearly there’s  _ something _ bothering him. Millie stands and shuts the fridge, and approaches him, albeit a bit slowly.

“Count Lucio,” She says, and he startles, his silver gaze falling on her. She swallows the sudden spike of nerves. “Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He quips back, though the grin he puts on is strained. “Home sweet home, right?”

She frowns, but he’s clearly not going to give her anything else to work with. “Well.. alright.. if you say so. Okay, so look. We’ll rest tonight, and tomorrow I can give you some of Asra’s old things to get you out of town.”

Lucio falters a little, but only for a moment before the blinding grin returns. “Sure, sure. And then I can get the hell out of here.”

“Right.” Millie sighs. “Okay. Just.. get some sleep. And try to keep a low profile, if you get up before me tomorrow.”

“Low profile, that’s me.” He opens the button on his coat and slides it off; it takes a long second for Millie to realize what he’s doing, and by that point his shirt is off. She feels the flush burn her cheeks and she turns away, making her way to the doorway with her eyes down. She can’t help but to feel a little annoyed - of course he would just start stripping in a stranger’s house. Worse, she’s sure it was entirely on purpose.

“Alright, well,” She says, avoiding looking at him. “Good night.”

“Sweet dreams.” He says, though there’s a little bit of a sarcastic edge in his voice. She pulls the door shut, probably a bit harder than necessary; the frame creaks a bit. She lets out a long breath. The good news is, she’s done the hard part: getting him out of the magical realms. Now it’s only a matter of getting him out of Vesuvia, and then..

And then what? He’s not their problem anymore, sure. But he’s still, well,  _ him _ \- he’ll find another city to terrorize, find himself another group of terrible people to fall in with. She groans under her breath as she takes the stairs back down to the front room. Well, she’s done what she can for him - if he chooses to go back to all of that when he’s left, that’s not her fault.

She realizes, too late, she’s still in her regular clothes. She hesitates for a long moment, but ultimately, she does  _ not _ want to go face Lucio again. Resigned, she sinks into one chair and unlaces her boots, kicking them off across the floor. It’s just for one night, she reminds herself; just until tomorrow. She settles more comfortably, sideways in the chair, and tugs a pillow up under her head. 

Just until tomorrow, and then Lucio will be gone for good.


End file.
